The Texas teacher who's one of Bob Dylan's favorite drummers

'I must say I had a good beat.'

Releasing"Triplicate" next week, his new triple album of classic American standards, Bob Dylan sat down to list some of his favorite drummers. A Beaumont native made the cut.

Photo: David Redfern/Redferns

Bob Dylan releases "Triplicate" next week, his new triple album of classic American standards. Five years have passed since Dylan last released an album of songs he wrote, and if you count "Triplicate" as three distinct recordings, that brings his great American songbook run to five.

Dylan doesn't do many interviews these days. But he did one with veteran music writer Bill Flanagan, likely in an effort to circumvent having to talk to other people. The chat isn't oddly provocative, as when Dylan in 2012 talked to Mikal Gilmore about transfiguration. While long, it isn't exactly probing, with breaks for the occasional hairball.

Flanagan: You could have had some love scenes with Faye Dunaway – any regrets?

"Lots of them," Dylan replied. "(Gene) Krupa, Elvin Jones, Fred Below, Jimmy Van Eaton, Charlie Watts. I like Casey Dickens, the drummer who played with Bob Wills. There are a lot of great drummers."

Bob Wills, "King of Western Swing," a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame, who died in 1975.

Photo: MBR

It's an interesting mix. The flamboyant Krupa was the gold standard for big-band drummers for years. Jones anchored jazz great John Coltrane's sound for much of the '60s. Van Eaton appeared on many great old Sun Records recordings. Below played with blues man Little Walter and, later, was a well-recorded player with the storied Chess label.

Watts played in some band you've probably heard.

Dickens was the interesting outlier among the group. The Beaumont native is alive and well, which can't be said about many of Bob Wills' Playboys, including his original drummer, William "Smokey" Dacus, who died in 2001.

And unlike the company Dylan placed him in, Dickens wasn't a lifelong student of the drum. He found his way into music through a back door left ajar.

He was a school teacher who admired the swinging sound of Texas legend Bob Wills. He so dug Wills' music that Dickens approached the fiddler/band leader and offered his services as a bus driver. Wills didn't need a bus driver, but he suggested Dickens, 28 at the time, try learning bass or drums. Dickens went to Herb Remington – a Houston-based pedal steel virtuoso who composed the Wills' standard "Boot Heel Drag" – who ran a music shop. He walked out with a used set of drums.

The Cowtown Society of Western Music said Dickens was still kicking around the Fort Worth area, and at 87 still wanders out for the occasional gig.

Drummer Casey Dickens.

So I reached out to Dickens, who hadn't heard anything about the Dylan shout-out.

"Is that right?" he said.

He said his focus with Wills was narrow. "Bob's forte was rhythm," Dickens said. "He ran a dance band, so all he wanted was a good beat. And I must say I had a good beat. But that's about it, too. There wasn't else to it."

Dickens' tenure with Wills only lasted about three years in the early 1960s, which would have put his name in album credits around the time a young Dylan would've been paying attention to such matters. He went back to teaching after his detour into music.

"People have called me a legend," he said. "I don't consider myself a legend."

He deflected attention to Wills. Dickens has a music room in his Fort Worth home dedicated to Wills.

And like Remington – who still lives and works in Houston – Dickens is a living piece of Texas music history, and two of increasing few connections to a vibrant era of swinging country music from this state.

Andrew Dansby covers music and other entertainment, both local and national, for the Houston Chronicle, 29-95.com and chron.com. He previously assisted the editor for George R.R. Martin, author of "Game of Thrones" and later worked on three "major" motion pictures you've never seen. That short spell in the film business nudged him into writing, first as a freelancer and later with Rolling Stone. He came to the Chronicle in 2004 as an entertainment editor and has since moved to writing full time.